Kind of a cross between the “running of the bulls” and “Make Way for Ducklings,” the event was dubbed by Walt Meshaka Jr., curator of zoology and botany at the Pennsylvania State Museum.

View full sizeA baby snapping turtle that will take part in the "Running of the Turtles" at Wildwood Park.Barbara Miller

Some 150 snapping turtle eggs dug up for safekeeping from predators are hatching and will be returned to their habitat.

Snapping turtle numbers in particular are down in Wildwood Park. “We think it’s loss of habitat. Wildwood Lake is rapidly filling in from effluent. It’s turning more into a marsh and a meadow than a lake,” Meshaka said, adding that it needs to be dredged.

“It gives us a chance in a fun, entertaining way to inform the public and make people aware and how they can contribute,” Meshaka said.

Meshaka, who specializes in herpetology, or study of reptiles, said about 150 eggs in half a dozen or more nests– mostly snapping turtles - were dug up in late spring. Snapping turtles are around 12-13 years old when they breed and lay eggs, he said. They crawl out of the water the end of April or early May and dig a hole about six inches deep in sandy soil in which to lay 25 to 50 eggs. They hatch about 90 days later. “Instinctively they know to go to the water,” said Kristie Smith, environmental educator.

Turtle nests in the garden in front of the Olewine Center have been covered with chicken wire to discourage predators. Many of the turtle eggs fall prey to raccoons, opossums and skunks, Meshaka said, and baby turtles can be eaten by predators like catfish and other turtles.

While the project was not prompted by the May 9 oil tanker spill near the park, Meshaka said it was a side benefit for the turtle population. “We don’t know how many perished underwater,” he said.

“It’s a good thing to do anyway, and in the face of a catastrophe, whether man-made or natural, it’s an opportunity to give them a chance,” Meshaka said.

“We saw some momma turtles with oil on their shells,” said Kristie Smith, environmental educator. “We never experienced an event like that before. We don’t know what the long-term effects are – we still don’t know. We still have residual oil wash in,” said Jane Webster, another environmental educator. The oil can come from depressions or vegetation that had been coated with oil.

But it’s still nowhere near the quantity seen last May, Webster said. “Things are a thousand times better than they were,” Smith added.

So far at least 70 of the snapping turtle eggs have hatched, and the baby turtles are

View full sizeDauphin County's Wildwood Park environmental educatorts Jane Webster (left) and Kristie Smith (right) show where the hatching baby turtles are living until the festival.Barbara Miller

living until the festival in a kiddie swimming pool in the lower level of the Benjamin Olewine Nature Center. The tiny turtles won’t be much bigger by Sept. 22, Smith said. Since they normally head straight for the water when they dig out of their nests, Smith said they usually don’t see them until several years later, when they’re saucer-sized.

Meshaka, along with professors and students from Dickinson College, have also been tagging turtles to monitor their populations. Wildwood Park has begun an “adopt a turtle” program, in which the public can pay $20, which goes for research and park projects, to “adopt” one of the reptiles in name only. Some painted turtles available for “adoption” will also be on display at the festival.

The turtles are marked with a microchip, and are periodically caught in nets to check their growth. So far, 213 painted turtles have been marked, and 19 snapping turtles.

“This year we noticed the number of females coming out of the water were very few. There used to be hundreds of them,” Smith said. “We had to tell people to look under their car before they would leave.”

The staff emphasizes that the turtles are not “pets.” In fact, dumping of “pet” turtles is the suspected source of red-eared sliders, an invasive turtle species that is infringing on other turtles in the park. “These are not pets. They can grow as big as a stop sign,” Webster said.

“Considering how bad it was, we’re all pretty pleased how quickly it recovered,” Webster said.

The timing of the spill was bad, since it happened during breeding season. “The adult birds could get out,” Webster said, but some of their offspring weren’t as lucky. “The young ones took the brunt of it,” Smith said.

Ultimately the park’s wetland did its job as nature intended, Webster said. “One of the functions of wetlands is to clean the water. There are lots of plants that absorb pollutants,” Webster said, and it kept the oil from running into the river.

But it’s also the worst place for a spill, since a wetland attracts so many species. “This is where they come to reproduce,” Smith said.

“It acts as a nursery for fish and waterfowl. There is a huge population of animals that are very vulnerable. The wetland did what it was supposed to do but the animals paid the price,” Webster said.

In recent weeks, people have reported seeing ducklings and goslings, so some adults have re-nested, they said. “So it’s great to see these baby turtles,” Webster said. “There’s hope,” Smith added.

“We are amazed at the resilience of nature and the way things have come back,” Webster said. For example, she said, “This was one of the more spectacular blooms of the American Lotus plants in the 13 years I’ve been here.”

IF YOU GO

Celebrate Wildwood Festival in Dauphin County's Wildwood Park

When: Sept. 22, 12-4 p.m.

Where: 100 Wildwood Way off Industrial Road, Harrisburg

What: Demonstrations, entertainment, Walk for Wildwood, Running of the Turtles and Adopt a Turtle program.

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